Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to carry out annual reviews of an Education Health and Care plan. Part of the complaint is late, and there are no good reasons to consider it now. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice in the remaining matters to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, says the Council failed to carry out the 2024 annual review of her child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) plan and delayed the 2025 annual review, thereby disadvantaging the child and delaying her applications for colleges.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X’s child has an EHC plan. She has been electively home-educated since 2023. Mrs X complains that, despite her requests, the Council failed to carry out an annual Review of the EHC plan in 2024. She further complains that the 2025 annual review was subject to delay.
7. Mrs X says her child’s EHC plan remained unchanged since she stopped attending school in 2023, thereby disadvantaging her in relation to her peers. She says that, when an annual review was carried out in August 2025, the amended final EHC plan was not issued within the 12-week statutory timescale. She says this delayed her child’s applications for a college place for phase transfer in September 2026.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate the failure to carry out the 2024 annual review. Mrs X’s complaint about this is late. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman in January 2026. There is no good reason for us to consider this aspect of the complaint now.
9. Regarding the 2025 annual review, the evidence shows that the Council delayed issuing the amended final EHC plan, and that the delay amounted to approximately two months. The Council has accepted this and its apology is reasonable in the circumstances.
10. Before phase transfer, the Council is required to carry out the annual review so as to be able to issue the EHC plan in final form by the end of the March before the September in which the transfer takes place. The Council did so in this case, so there was no significant injustice caused by the delay. There are insufficient grounds for the Ombudsman to intervene.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. Part of the complaint is late, and there are no good reasons to consider it now. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice in the remaining matters to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman